Having been deep in this kind of work, on both sides of the mic, for about 20 years myself, I can tell you that it’s both true and not true at the same time.

It’s true because Shearer is masterful. He is a technician who not only delivers the lines, but gets the right amount of gravitas and nuance to breathe substantial life and purity into the characters he has helped create over the years. It’s also true in that it’s hard to replace such beloved characters and having a level of “imitation” can sound, well, a little off — that’s also to do with the nuance thing.

It’s not true because there are plenty of very talented voice actors who could likely mimic what’s been done with these characters. To wit, I worked with a guy in radio who could pretty much nail about 10 of The Simpsons characters — and it showed in what I thought was a fairly awkward segment one morning when Nancy Cartwright, mainly the voice of Bart Simpson, visited the station. It turned into some kind of weird audition time that was cute after the first impression but quickly got into that awkward stage.

For voice actors like us, this is a dream opportunity. The downside is that every talent’s agent is likely inundating The Simpsons and hitting up anyone they know at Fox for this gig. The other downside is that there could be 100+ people in the mix of this thing and it’s often akin to trying to hit a Powerball lottery.

Some years ago, I was invited to audition for the recasting of Winnie the Pooh. It was exciting and I did the very best I could. I also knew that I was in the mix with some pretty huge voice actors and was likely a tad too young-sounding and not quite “gravely” enough to pull it off. That’s one of the realities of this kind of work — the shine of the opportunity can sometimes cloud the reality — that whole Powerball thing.

It’s also not easy for the producers. Sifting through this much voiceover is exhausting. I’ve been there on commercial projects as a producer and it can really suck when it all starts to sound the same. I could be wrong about the scope they are working from. They may already have a short list in mind to make the process easier on themselves. If that’s the case, I feel sorry for the poor people who have to field calls from every agent and talent in LA.

Regardless, this whole thing will be interesting to watch. It’s not great that it was made so public and that both sides resorted to a little sniping back and forth. Once the decisions are made, though, there will likely be some blowback (“he’s not as good as Harry Shearer!”) but that will change over time as people get used to someone new. Hell, the lay person may not even notice and it’s really a concentrated group of fans who prefer to keep the purity of this thing alive.

from James L. Brooks' lawyer: "show will go on, Harry will not be part of it, wish him the best.". (1/2)